Splice or angle bar.



PATBNTED APR; 30, 1907.

E. c. SEWARD. SPLICE 0R ANGLE BAR. APPLIQATION FILED FEB.1,1907.

' @Wfimewew UNITED srarns PATENT onruon.

EDWVARD C. SEl/VARD, OF GUILFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGN OR TO RAILWVAY SUPPLIES LIMITED, OF EAST TORONTO, CANADA, A CORPORATION.

SPLICE OR ANGLE BAR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 30, 1907.

Applicatio filed February 1,1907. Serial No. 355,199.

To aZZ whom it may GOTLOGT'I'L.

Be it known that I, EDWARD C. SEWARD, a cltlzen of the United States, and a resident of Guilford, in the county of New Haven and I State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Splice or Angle Bars, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to splice or angle bars for joining railway rails and has for its object the construction of splice or angle bars which shall have their neutral axes and neutral surfaces in substantial harmony with the neutral axes and neutral surfaces of the rails to which they are applied.

A practical embodiment of my invention is represented in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a View in side elevation of a splice or angle bar in position along the meeting ends of two consecutive railway rails, Fig 2 is a transverse section in the plane of the line AA of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a portion of one of the rails in perspective.

I have chosen to illustrate my invention, a form of reinforced splice or angle bar where the reinforcements on the exterior of the bar are of different thicknesses and tapered vertically and extended over the bolt holes to maintain the gradual diminution in the stiffness of the bar as it extends back from the end of the rail to which it is applied, but my invention is applicable to other well known types so modifying them as to bring their neutral surfaces and neutral axes in substantial harmony with the neutral surfaces and axes of the rail. It has been found important in rail construction to locate the neutral axis and surface of the rail a little below the middle point in the height of the rail. In using these terms neutral surface and neutral axis I have followed the technical language used at present by experts in the art, the term neutral surface referring to the longitudinal plane, indicated by the dotted line a, b, Fig. 3, along which the molecules of metal are under neither extension nor compression strain when the rail is bent under a passing load, producing the wave of deflection; and the term neutral axis referring to any transverse line in that plane, for instance, the line a, c, Fig. 3. This neutral surface and neutral axis may be located below the middle point in the height of the rail, either by a preponderance of metal below the middle point, where the metal is of uniform stillness throughout or when the amount of metal above and below the middle point is equal, by making the base of the rail stiffer during the process of rolling It is of importance that the angle or splice bars which take the strain of the passing load at the rail joints, should not only be so graduated in stillness as to maintain the Wave of deflection unbroken, but that they should, at the same time, bend naturally along the same plane that the rail bends, that is, in substantial harmony with the rail, thereby avoiding the breaking strain which would be otherwise forced upon them through their intimate connection. with the rail.

The rails are denoted by 1. and 2, the splice or angle bars by 3 and i and the fastening bolts by 5.

The splice or angle bars are so formed, either by increasing the mass of metal in their heads 6 and 7, over the mass in their bases 8 and 9, or setting up a higher degree of stiffness in the one part of the bar than in the other or by both varying the mass of metal and its quality; as to bring the neutral surface of the bar indicated by the dotted line (l, c, Fig. 1, and its neutral axis indicated by the dotted line d, f, in substantial har mony with the neutral surface and neutral axis of the rail.

hat I claim is l. The combination with railway rails, of angle bars connecting the meeting ends of the rails, the neutral surface and neutral axes of the bars being in substantial harmony with the neutral surface and neutral axes of the rails which the bars connect.

2. The combination with railway rails having their neutral surfaces and neutral axes below the middle points in the heights of the rails, of angle bars for connecting the ends of said rails, the said bars having their neutral surfaces and neutral axes in substantial harmony with those of the rails.

3. The combination with railway rails having their neutral surfaces and neutral axes below the middle points in the heights of my invention, I have signed my name in the rails, of reinforced angle bars for conpresence of tWo Witnesses, this thirty-first necting the ends of said rails, the said bars day of January, 1907.

having their neutral surfaces and neutral EDWARD C. SEWARD. 5 axes in substantial harmony With those of Witnesses:

the rails. C. S. SUNDGREN,

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing as HENRY THIEME. 

